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Blog Posts: carbon

While a carbon tax has attracted little attention in the U.S. media before the primary debate last week, WRI research shows it's a policy that can reduce emissions in cost-effective, pro-growth and equitable ways. In fact, some 40 countries and more than 20 cities, states and regions have or are planning on putting carbon prices in place.

Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil's sixth-largest state and a major agricultural producer, recently committed to go carbon-neutral. The initiative will help the country meet its national and international goals to reduce its overall emissions 37 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.

The upcoming decisions at the Paris negotiations present an opportunity to put our global community on the right path, providing appropriate short-term signals for investors and innovators, as well as a strong long-term signal that guides the phase-out of greenhouse gas pollution.

The world is losing the window of opportunity to solve the climate crisis. To have a reasonable chance of limiting global warming to 2°C and avoid its most dramatic effects, we need to limit all carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) to one trillion metric tons.

With the world’s appetite for chocolate at an all-time high, producers are looking for new places to grow cacao—the raw ingredient in cocoa and chocolate. Some are turning to South America, where satellite images show one cacao plantation encroaching dramatically on the Amazon rainforest.

Thirty-nine countries now have carbon-pricing policies on the books, while hundreds of businesses have voiced support. Pricing carbon, which was just a theoretical concept a few years ago, has blossomed into real climate action.

Large trucks and airplanes account for about one-third of total U.S. transportation emissions. WRI analysis shows that setting strong efficiency standards for these sectors could deliver at least 6 percent of the total reductions the United States needs to meet its goal of reducing total emissions by 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.